Comparison of the Results of Serum Total Protein Concentration Measured by 3 Methods: Preliminary Results

Abstract: The present study provides the results from a comparative study of the 3 commonly used methods for total protein (TP) measurement. The experiments were carried out with 6 dogs (4-7 year-old, weighing 12.8 ± 1.4 kg). Five blood samples were obtained by saphena venepuncture from all dogs, during the time course of the experimentally induced infection with Staphylococcus intermedius, administered subcutaneously at a dose rate of 5 ml of 1.109 CFU/ml within 14 days. TP concentration was measured by 2 macro protein techniques- biuret method (commonly used) and method of Lowry, and a modified version of biuret method (micro protein technique), suggested by Popov. Serum TP concentration determined by the method of Lowry was significantly (P < 0.001) higher than the ones obtained by standard biuret and Popov’s methods. The mean differences between TP values obtained by standard biuret technique and Lowry’s method and, Lowry’s and Popov’s method were 18.6 g/l and 23.5 g/l, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between standard biuret method and its modified version suggested by Popov. Key Words: Total protein concentration, dogs, biuret method, method of Lowry, modification biuret technique by Popov The total protein (TP) concentration is the most frequently examined blood parameter for diagnostic purposes in veterinary clinical laboratory. Changes in serum protein concentration are associated with a number of disease processes (1). Due to the wide range of potentia